Shadowness will close down on July 1st, 2015

I started Shadowness when I was 20, after dropping out of college and accepting my first job as a graphic designer. Back then, the site served as my personal portfolio, but also had some tutorials about the techniques that I learned along the way. Eventually, it was so popular that I decided to create a community out of it. That was the birth of Shadowness. Little did I know that it would be my first little startup. I had no experience running a business and eventually it would fail. But my passion for art persisted and I kept releasing new versions of the site with each passing year as a side project. I learned a great deal about designing a community driven site and with a motivated team of volunteers, we created a tight-knit community that showcased some of the best graphic design works the world had ever seen. We barely survived but we loved every minute. In our best year, we served over 50,000 artists.

Today, I haven't updated the site in 2 years. My main job requires too much of my time. I can't provide the same level of focus and passion that our community rightly deserves. Deep down I secretly wished that I would find again an opportunity where I could refocus my efforts on rebuilding and improving the site. But I waited too long and the cracks are already showing. So with a heavy heart, I decided to close the site so that our community, moderators and staff can move on instead of waiting for something great to happen, or worse let the frustrations build up as pressing issues are left unsolved. I hope that you keep fond memories of Shadowness. And I hope that with all the things that you've learned here, you'll take that knowledge with you and keep creating great works of art.

The site will remain active until July 1st, 2015, so that you have enough time to migrate your artworks to another location. I'd like to recommend 500px for photographers, Behance for graphic designers, Dribbble for user interface designers and DeviantArt for digital artists.

Signing up and uploading on Shadowness has been disabled. To all the kind supporters who paid for a subscription in the last 365 days, you will be reimbursed entirely.

I'd like to thank all our staff members, moderators and community for your kind and great support over the past 10 years, without which we would never have existed. Thank you deeply and keep creating! Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions or thoughts.